We accepted, in the end, a total of 70 students in the One World Our World program for summer 2021. There are 48 students in the Computing Technology subject and 22 students in the Fashion Design subject. 38 students are from Hong Kong, 5 are from Mainland China. The remaining 27 are spread very evenly over 18 countries, throughout East Asia, South East Asia, Central Asia, Europe and North America. This is the first tome we have students from foreign universities taking our SL courses for credit. We are hoping this is just a beginning and we are determined to make it a success.
In the Computing Technology subject (course), Students from many different countries work together to serve children handicapped children in special schools online. They use a variety of means, such as games, puzzles, artificial intelligence applications, encounters in daily lives to engage the children. In this case, the technology is a tool, a catalyst to stimulate, enhance the interaction. The key is the communication , the person to person contact between our students and the children. But the technology has to be attractive and truly inspiring.
We have included a little bit of augmented reality and artificial intelligence into the course. One of them in the form of training an application to recognise pictures of specific objects, such as cats, dogs, etc. This is pattern recognition, a kind of artificial intelligence, in computer science jargon, and the underlying technology is not something that can be learned in a matter of hours or days. But tools are available these days, that allow us to train a program to recognise cats and dogs, but showing the program many training pictures of cats and dogs. Once trained, the program can recognise a picture of a cat or dog, when it is shown a picture that it has not see before. This way, even children can begin to appreciate what artificial intelligence is and what it can do without having to learn the complicated core algorithms. Everyone involved through it fascinating, for different reasons. This is an example of what one can do with technology in service-learning, with a bit of imagination and hard work.
It is very challenging but also fulfilling when the students find that their hard work makes an impact on some of the children who are facing very severe challenges. These children can hardly communicate verbally. It is often hard to figure out how much they understand. Our students are challenged to be creative, to communicate with sounds, gestures, body language, and the technology. It is hard. But when it works, it is highly satisfying and confidence-building.
In the Fashion Design subject, the class manage to meet in person, with some service conducted in small groups in their workshops and other spaces on campus whenever possible, for students who can attend in person. For this summer, their clients are high-functioning young people on the autism spectrum. These young people can function reasonably well in the real world, studying, working, among people. But they face special challenges because of their special needs, which may be difficult to understand without interacting with them up close. Our students are privileged to have the chance to get to know them well, having work together with them for a long time, in different settings. But this also pose another kind of challenge.
The medium used in this class is the design of clothing, wearables. The clients and our students work tougher, in small groups in classes as well as the well-equipped, specially designed workshops. The course, the projects, and the whole process have been carefully designed by the teacher to facilitate their work and interaction. Using their minds and hands, they communicate well through their designs and the impact of those designs. The service cumulates in the photo shoot when the clients model the designs co-created with the students. Because of the pandemic, a cat walk in a public space is not organised this year. In past years, these have been fun, festival occasions.
These two courses are chosen each for its own unique approach to service-learning. The results have been very positive, evidenced by the reaction of the students, teachers and others involved. It looks like the international summer school on SL has made a successful beginning. The students’ work were showcased in the virtual world created for the Symposium and Expo on July 9-10, 2021, attracting a lot of interest.
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